Virtual Reality Training for Aphasia Rehabilitation

NCT ID: NCT05793879

Last Updated: 2024-02-07

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 40 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-05-02
• Study Completion Date: 2026-03-31

Brief Summary

Aphasia is an acquired deficit following acute damage to the central nervous system that involves the difficulty or impossibility of understanding and formulating language. A typical disorder of non-fluent forms of aphasia is anomia. Anomia refers to the difficulty in finding words, in particular when trying to name objects and actions. According to the Embodied Cognition approach (EC), language is tightly connected to the motor system. In this view, language rehabilitation programs should stimulate language through the activation of the motor system. In this approach, since anomic deficits are often due to a weak link between the meaning of the word and its lemma, the Hebbs' principles of coincident and correlated learning can be exploited, i.e., by intensifying the synchronous activation of lexicon and semantics and connecting them with the motor counterpart. In this study, the investigators present an innovative training, based on the EC framework, in which they will make use of new technologies for anomia rehabilitation in post-stroke patients. Specifically, the researchers will use immersive 360° videos representing everyday actions displayed from the first-person point of view, experienced through a head-mounted display. The training will be administered 3 times a week for 4 weeks. The control group will watch standard videos representing the same actions recorded from the third-person perspective. Naming abilities will be tested before and after the training together with other cognitive and psychological measures. The investigators expect that the group who will undergo the 360° video-based training will show greater improvement of performance compared to the control group.

Conditions

Anomic Aphasia

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Video 360

Patients will watch spherical videos displaying everyday actions towards objects; an audio is embedded describing the action and the object represented (i.e. "I'm cutting the potatoes").

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Video 360

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Patients will undergo 12 sessions, 3 per weeks, 4 weeks

Standard video

Patients will watch standard videos displaying everyday actions towards objects; an audio is embedded describing the action and the object represented (i.e. "I'm cutting the potatoes")

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Standard videos

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Patients will undergo 12 sessions, 3 per weeks, 4 weeks

Interventions

Video 360

Patients will undergo 12 sessions, 3 per weeks, 4 weeks

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Standard videos

Patients will undergo 12 sessions, 3 per weeks, 4 weeks

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• naming disorder in the post-acute phase (index event occurring at least 6 months earlier)
• to have already received rehabilitation treatment in the acute phase
• noun naming below cut-off
• verbs naming below cut- off

Exclusion Criteria

• concomitant or pre-existing (with respect to the index event) neurological and psychiatric deficits
• epilepsy
• balance disorders
• neglect

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 80 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Fondazione Poliambulanza

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Claudia Repetto

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Claudia Repetto, Prof

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Locations

Poliambulanza

Brescia, , Italy

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

Italy

Central Contacts

Claudia Repetto, Prof

Role: CONTACT

claudia.repetto@unicatt.it

+39 3488122121

Alice Cancer, PhD

Role: CONTACT

alice.cancer@unicatt.it

Facility Contacts

Alessandra Maietti, Msc

Role: primary

Other Identifiers

UC

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id